A police officer in Chechnya was killed and three others seriously wounded May 3 when militants opened fire on the cars in the republic’s Achkhoi-Martan district, RIA Novosti and The Associated Press (AP) reported on May 4. AP quoted Chechnya’s Interior Ministry as saying that... MORE

In an interview with Die Presse published May 3, Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov said that he will step down in ten years, when the republic is “flourishing.”  Kadyrov told the Austrian newspaper that Chechnya in 2019 will be a “flourishing republic with the most handsome... MORE

Itar-Tass reported on May 6 that the number of federal troops in Chechnya will be cut in half and that the Combined Group of Forces in the North Caucasus will be transformed into a new security body provisionally called the Committee for Maintaining Security in... MORE

The situation in Georgia appears to be deteriorating rapidly. Last month the Georgian opposition parties began street protests in an effort to force President Mikhail Saakashvili to resign. Since April 9 massive rallies by opposition supporters failed to compel Saakashvili to yield, and the number... MORE

The recent uncertainty surrounding Turkish-Azeri relations is giving way to a new period of optimism, ahead of high level diplomatic contacts. Turkish President Abdullah Gul and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will meet Azeri officials in a bid to reassure Baku of Ankara's intention to... MORE

The last thing that NATO needed on the eve of its controversial military exercises in Georgia was a mutiny, and that is exactly what happened yesterday. The details are still scarce and rumors run rife, as they always do in the South Caucasus, but perhaps... MORE

Most Azerbaijani politicians as well as the general public believe that the recent developments in Turkey's bilateral relationship with Armenia were aimed only at influencing Barack Obama's April 24 statement. Supposedly, Turkey wanted to provide a reason for Obama to avoid using the word "genocide"... MORE

For nearly two months after the death of the last leader of Dagestan’s Sharia Jamaat, Emir Muaz (Umar Sheikhullaev), who was killed in Leninkent, a suburb of the Dagestani capital Makhachkala, during a special operation on February 5 (https://www.kavkaz.tv/russ/content/2009/02/16/64019.shtml), the Sharia Jamaat operated without a... MORE

Seven Russian citizens, including Adam Delimkhanov, the State Duma deputy and cousin of Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov, have been put on Interpol’s wanted list at the request of the United Arab Emirates in connection with last month’s murder of former Vostok battalion commander Sulim Yamadaev... MORE